By their own description, this installation by Dutch desginers SpaceOperaFormsounds like sheer magic: Huge sheets of “thermally-bonded polypropylene filaments” hang from the ceiling at an old Austrian salt factory; and, as people walk between them, their own static charge causes the curtains to billow outwards, creating a “reactive experience” meant to explore “the phenomenological and visual affects of extreme weather conditions.”

Woo-hoo! Fancy design talk! Magical as the installation might be in person, the mystery behind it is actually commonplace: The normal word for “thermally-bonded polypropylene filaments” is “fabric-softener sheets”; they waft in response to your static electricity, in the same way dryer sheets cling to your clothes.

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Of course, on question this raises is: Shouldn’t these sheets be just as likely to stick to you, as they are to bulge outwards? Or maybe you have to touch metal or something before entering the installation? Anyone out there know?